


colors

by Little Keplerette (classycloudcuckoolanderclasso)



Category: Mother 1 | EarthBound Zero | EarthBound Beginnings, Mother 2: Gyiyg no Gyakushuu | EarthBound, Mother 3
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - High School, Alternate Universe - Soulmates, F/M, Gen, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-31
Updated: 2019-03-31
Packaged: 2019-12-30 02:25:43
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,450
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18306302
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/classycloudcuckoolanderclasso/pseuds/Little%20Keplerette
Summary: The mismatch in their eyes were the puzzle pieces that fell in place when their eyes met. Soulmate AU.





	colors

**Author's Note:**

> i will feed the clauless tag

At birth, Paula Jones had emerald and amethyst colored eyes.

Upon the discovery, her parents had been worried. People were usually born with two different colored eyes - one inherited from the parents, and one the color of their soulmate’s. Paula’s parents had blue and brown eyes - but neither seemed to have passed it on to her.

At first there had been the consideration of infidelity. But then they remembered that neither of them had the time nor patience nor capacity to commit such endeavors, and thus immediately discarded them. Their second thought was to bring their daughter to the doctor - to see if heterochromia had somehow struck their daughter, or if recessive genes had a part to play in the odd coloration. But the doctor had no answers either - and a DNA test had certainly proved her heritage.

So what had happened with little Paula Jones?

She was the topic of mystery for years on end. Scientists begged her parents to allow them to study her, test on her - but they denied them, infuriated they would even  _ consider  _ their darling daughter nothing but a ‘scientific anomaly’. It broke their hearts to know that what they had grown to love as their sweet Paula’s beautiful eyes would only be considered by the world as science and magic’s mysterious anomaly.

So they moved.

They changed their names. They took on the last name Polestar, and little Paula Jones became little Paula Polestar of the Polestar preschool, in Twoson. In Twoson, they didn’t know too well about Paula Jones and her freaky soulmate eyes. All they cared about was Paula Polestar, the pretty daughter of the kindergarten teachers. And that was enough for the Polestars. All the world soon forgot about Paula Jones and her mismatched soulmate eyes.

Paula always looked at her eyes in the mirror, hands gripping the sink as she intently observed their color, engraving their shades into her heart. The left - a cool emerald green, pristine in its shine. And the right - a warm amethyst purple, with a sort of strange magic to its depths. She knew this wasn’t her true eye color - that somewhere out there, her soulmate had such powerful and odd eyes that it overpowered her own. It was a possibility - she’d read about it in history and medical books, as well as mystical tomes.

Years passed. Paula turned nineteen - and by that point she’d already given up hope on solving her personal mystery.

Until she had met Ness.

* * *

It was during a bright summer’s day when Paula Polestar met Ness Somerset. He’d been baseball varsity - the batter - for the Onett Oneshots and thus a member of the opposing team to the Twoson Terrors, so it was a bit of a surprise that she’d even gotten so close to him.

They’d both been in line for the hotdog stand when someone had accidentally bumped into him, making him spill his orange juice all over her new blue cardigan and pink dress. The sticky orange juice bled through the cloth rather quickly as he panicked, turning to face her.

“I am  _ so  _ sorry, I didn’t-”

“No, no, it’s okay-”

\- and when their eyes locked, before her eyes she saw one of his eyes change color - what she’d first seen as a lovely sapphire blue had suddenly darkened into a deep amethyst purple.

A color she knew by heart.

With the grace of a buffalo in ballet shoes, she blurted out, “You have pretty eyes.”

“... Thanks!” He beamed at her as he offered his handkerchief. “Uh. Here- um- for the uh- spill. I’m Ness. Ness-”

“Somerset. I know. Because. You’re. Uh.” God this was becoming awkward. “The. The batter. Onett Oneshots.”

“ _ Right _ . Yeah. Uh. You from… Twoson?”

“Yeah.”

“Figured as much.”

“Oh?”

“I know most of the people in Onett… and I’d never seen a girl as pretty as you. Uh. Besides my mom. And sister.”

Paula blushed a pretty pink. “Didn’t know you have a way with words, Somerset.”

“That’s all the wordy content you’ll get from me - Tracy calls me a dumbass,” Ness laughed, scratching the back of his neck. “A-anyway… so. Uh. I kinda got a… game right now. But- but do you wanna…?”

Paula cocked her head to the side. “Wanna…”

“Wanna-”

“YO, SOMERSET! THE BAT DON’T SWING ITSELF!”

“ _ Please after this match meet me at the nearest diner for lunch we can talk more about this I really gotta go they’ll throttle me bye see you-”  _ And before Paula could say anything, Ness had already gone and went in a blaze.

Paula stared after him, lifting a hand to her heart and the other to her eye - the eye she knew had probably changed along with his.

That boy was  _ so  _ hers.

It occurred to her later that she hadn’t told him her name. Oh well - maybe he’d be thinking about that the whole match.

* * *

As it turned out, he  _ was _ thinking about that little fact the whole match - so much that he’d nearly thrown the match. This he lamented to her over a shared banana split -  _ after _ she told him her name.

Both past and present ones.

“I won’t tell,” Ness promised, grinning as he rested his cheek against his palm. “Mainly because that was my problem too, you know. Before I met you.”

Paula gazed into his eyes. The amethyst that had once been hers had returned to its rightful place on Ness’s face, but the mystery of the emerald green eye still remained. “Now we both have one green eye.”

“Yeah,” Ness let his free hand play with the straw on his milkshake. “Kinda weird though. No one has green eyes in my family. Dad’s are an icy blue, and Mom’s are amethyst. Tracy - that’s my sister - has icy blue too.”

Paula sighed. “It’s gonna be forever a mystery, I guess. But at least- at least I got to meet you.” She smiled at him, and he smiled back. “Soulmates, huh?”

“Soulmates,” Ness agreed, raising a pinky towards her. She answered by wrapping her pinky around his.

* * *

It was during a cold winter’s day when Paula Polestar met Claus Lockhart. He’d been one of the newer residents to Twoson, having moved from Summers after his mother had died to seek a change of scenery. His mother Hinawa had been buried in Threed after they’d moved, so the Lockharts were often seen in intervals visiting her gravestone by the Twoson residents - so much that it was often assumed they had a house in both Twoson and Threed.

He’d been walking towards the bus stop to Threed when he’d glimpsed her already standing by the schedule, wearing a goldenrod winter coat and black boots. Her favorite red bow had been traded in favor of a black one with white frills, and her breath had been leaving her mouth in wisps as he stood next to her, waiting for his turn to look at the schedules for the day.

“You don’t usually see sunflowers in the winter,” She commented, glancing at the bouquet in his hands as he approached. “Going somewhere?”

Claus didn’t answer at first, waiting for her to step aside. Upon realizing he wouldn’t answer immediately, she stepped aside to let him look, and once she did he peered down to look at the schedule before saying, “Threed. Cemetery.”

“A loved one.” It was sort of a question.

Claus inclined his head slightly as he stood up. A nod. “You?”

“Fourside. But I have to make a stop in Threed first,” Paula held out a mittened hand to him. “I’m Paula. You?”

“Claus.” He shifted the weight of the bouquet to his other arm before shaking her hand, his eyes searching her face briefly as hers did the same -

\- and when their eyes locked, before her eyes she saw one of his eyes change color - what she’d first seen as a lovely sapphire blue had suddenly darkened into a pristine emerald green. And his other eye… amethyst purple.

Colors she knew by heart.

She was not subtle at all, apparently, because she’d choked on midair at her realization. Claus, however, had noticed that the bus was arriving, and was moving to head for it when Paula clapped a hand on his arm.

“Can. Can I go with you?”

Claus looked at her, and then squinted, seeing her eye colors. His eyes widened, and for a brief moment she saw his free hand move as though to reach towards the eye that had changed on his own face. As if changing his mind however, he just nodded. “It’s not a fun outing.”

“I know. But. Um. I think we have something to talk about anyway. So.”

Claus let the ghost of a smile paint across his face.as he helped her up on the bus.

* * *

Visiting Hinawa was… something else.

Unlike the rest of the graveyard, Hinawa Lockhart’s grave was in the sunniest portion, the white snow highlighting the blackness of her gravestone as Claus moved to shove off the snow from it. Eventually there was enough space that Claus could place down the bouquet of sunflowers in front of it, and as he backed away, he found his place next to Paula as they both quietly looked at her grave.

“... She probably would like you,” Claus said eventually, after a time. At Paula’s questioning glance, he only offered as an explanation, “It’s just a feeling I’m getting. Lucas says I’m getting better at picking up on general vibes of others.”

“Lucas?”

“My brother,” he clarified. “He’d probably like you too. He’s like Mom. You’d probably get what I mean if I took you to met him now.”

“What makes me so likable? We’ve barely talked during the entire bus ride.”

Claus’s cheeks tinted a faint pink as he glanced back at her with mismatched violet and green eyes. “Well. It’s not every day someone asks to join me to say hello to my dead mother, after all… is that weird of me to say?”

“W-well-! No, not… not really, I. I think I should be the one worried I’m coming off as weird-” Paula turned red before glancing away - and then looking back at him, remembering something rather important. “... Um. Claus?”

“Yes?”

“Speaking of meeting people… there’s… someone  _ you  _ need to meet.”

“... What?”

“Someone you need to meet,” Paula repeated, pointing to her eyes. “My eyes are the same color now, right? What color are they?”

“Blue. Specifically, sapphire.”

“Oddly specific! But yours are still green and violet, right?”

“I haven’t looked in a mirror yet since we’ve met, so I wouldn’t know.”

Paula gave him a Look, which made him chuckle slightly. “You know what I mean. I’m just saying - I think I know who else you have to meet for your purple eye. But you’re gonna have to wait until the baseball season rolls around again. That’s when he’s the most likely to come around the most in Twoson.”

“... Okay?” If eyebrows could disappear into hairlines, Claus’s would have already.

“Trust me on this,” Paula beamed up at him, sticking out her pinky finger. “Okay, soulmate?”

Claus looked down at her pinkie, then up at her.

He latched his pinkie onto hers.

“Okay, soulmate.”

 

* * *

Or rather,  _ soulmates _ .

It was during a warm spring day when Ness Somerset met Claus Lockhart. Seeing as that Claus didn’t like going out too often to do things beyond the ones that greatly benefited him and his overall lifestyle, it was hard for Paula to coax him out of his hiding place in Twoson - even if she was his soulmate. He just simply did not have it in him to genuinely interact with others before they interacted with him first - and with his generally intimidating aura, people rarely tried. She’d been one of the few exceptions to his rule. In the end, it took Lucas practically kicking his brother out into the curb for Claus to don his favorite fur trimmed jacket in the middle of spring.

“Traitor,” Claus accused as Lucas clapped a hand on Paula’s shoulder.

Lucas rolled his eyes. “Get out of the house already, Claus. We can’t both be stuck in here today, I have to get ready for work - and besides. You need some time with your soulmate already. Now shoo, shoo, brother dearest!” He made a shooing motion with his hands, which made Paula giggle as Claus huffed and stalked out.

“Your brother’s already working?” Paula asked as she hopped down the steps of the Lockhart house, landing on the path.

Claus nodded briefly as they began to walk towards the nearest diner in Twoson. “Working student. Dad’s working too, but we both need like pocket money to do anything so he trusts us to get some work done for ourselves.”

“You have a job too?”

“Sort of? It’s an instructor job. I teach young kids some basic fencing.”

“Aw. That’s cute. I didn’t know you fenced.”

Claus paused in front of the front door to the diner. “Well, now you do. And now you owe me a fun fact about yourself.”

“Oh! Sneaky,” Paula mock accused before laughing and pushing through the front door. “Fun fact… I can’t cook to save my life.”

“That I can confirm,” wafted in Ness’s voice to their left, and Paula brightened up at the sound of his voice, grabbing onto Claus’s hand and tugging him along quickly.

“Ness! Ness!” Paula greeted, her free hand waving at him delightedly. “Ness, you have to meet someone!”

“I already have you, Paula-” Ness laughed, but upon seeing the other person she was with he let his eyes travel up, and up, and  _ up-  _

\- and when their eyes locked, before Paula’s eyes she saw the last of their eyes change color - the violet on Claus fading into green, and the green on Ness darkening into violet.

Colors she knew by heart.

Colors the other two knew as well, apparently, because Claus had suddenly exclaimed, “You have… purple eyes.”

“... Yeah, those come from my mom!” Ness answered, a grin soon forming itself on his face. Relieved that his words hadn’t been too odd, Claus returned the grin with a smile as Ness turned to face Paula. “Y’know, I’m still not going to forget what you first said to me about my eyes.”

“Oh?” Claus raised an eyebrow. Paula knew that look on his face from the weeks since she’d met him - a mischievous smirk was beginning to bloom. “Do tell.”

Paula groaned. “Oh,  _ come on.  _ Let me  _ live,  _ both of you.”

The two boys laughed, and despite herself, she laughed with them, crossing her arms as she did so. Maybe this whole more than one soulmate thing wouldn’t be so bad - especially with boys like them.


End file.
